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September 2021 Board Meeting

December 2021 Board Meeting

The decisions for the Strategic Training Fund - Stage Two will be announced.

Funding decisions for the Strategic Training Fund - Stage One will be announced.

The recipient(s) of He Ara will be notified the week beginning 30 November 2020.

Siblings in a colonial New Zealand household discover one snowy night that they are orphans. Henry, the impressionable middle child is haunted by the ghost of their abusive father. He resists his cross-dressing older brother's attempt to mother the...

A social commentary watching the lives of five 15 & 16 year olds as each “slice of their life” is revealed on the hour from 12 midnight until 5am. Sometimes real life needs no verbal explanation. Sometimes life gets in the way of...

A couple searches the West Coast bush for a wasps’ nest. He is a tracker of signals, but can’t seem to read what she wants. She cuts back a fallen tree to keep the fertile natural world at bay but when she comes across a dying mouse on her...

Dean returns to his small town home where he finds the tight-knit community is still against him. When his live-wire older brother Jon ignites local tensions the brothers retreat into the wilderness with their hunting gear.  As an old animosity...

This urban coming-of-age story begins when Leke (14) runs away from home after yet another beating from his frustrated father. Alone in the early hours of the morning outside a shop in Manurewa, Leke is approached by a young accolyte who takes him to...

We follow a writers’ meticulous morning routine as he prepares to conceive a great work of art. His list of preparations grows longer and more specific, revealing his love and obsession with writing, until finally, he sits down to write, feeling...

Shadow Cut is a poignant and lyrical drama centred on the intimate relationship between Boy and Girl, two teens drawn to a world beyond the restrictive walls of rural New Zealand. Boy and Girl decide to take the long way home after school. When Girl...

Set in the misty mountains of Lake Waikaremoana another generation is poised to inherit the land. With a heavy heart the old matriarch Nanny Oriwa sends for her grandson pinning all her hopes for the land and family on him.  Without hesitation...

The Old Man, The Budgie, & The Flea is the touching tale of 80-year-old Perry Smyth, who near the end of his life, is forced to confront his demons as his dreams slowly turn into regrets. He's been building a plane since the second world war...

Grey William is the story of Margie, a tour operator providing uniquely intimate NZ tours in her company van ‘Grey William’. But it’s a new, modern world which offers independence for travelers and, teamed the newer, larger tour...

This is a story about fear and fate, explored through the experience of both the victim and the perpetrator. A young woman home alone receives a call from a stranger, a young man asking her to the pictures.  She declines but later finds the man...

Louie and Darius are young practitioners of classical arts, living together in a small flat. Louie is a still-life painter, whose obsessive compulsive nature is reflected in his too-neat environment and slow progress. Darius is a zealous violinist in the...

Nathan works as a corporate cleaner in high-rise office buildings to fund his ambitions as a musician. When word comes from the top that his cleaning standards aren’t up to scratch, the company enlists the help of Heu to show him how things are...

This character-driven documentary is a 'day in the life of' Peter as he photographs some of the 200+ lava caves that can be found under the suburban streets of Auckland. These caves can be found in the most unsuspecting of places....

70 year-old Meredith has early-onset Alzheimers and must be moved out of her home. Moving day has arrived, and daughter Steph and granddaughter Claire have come to help. But just like her inner guardian, Byzantine Empress Theodora, Meredith may not be...

In a small New Zealand town known as the ‘Kiwifruit Capital of the World’, disease ravages vines and decimates the industry. Facing ruin, Greg spirals into anger. He pushes his wife Trish away, leaving her isolated and depressed. When Greg is...

Laundry is a character-driven joyful comedy about a happily married but frustrated woman, struggling to find intimacy due to the demands of raising a family. 

An intimate encounter with the human face of food, Meat is an astonishing insight into the hidden world behind the supermarket shelves.  Dive into the life and work of four profoundly different meat producers – discover how the food on your...

Tech entrepreneur and owner of the popular cloud service MegaUpload, Kim Dotcom arrived in New Zealand with his family in late 2010. Seeking the ‘quiet life’ in this tiny group of “clean and green” islands in the South Pacific, he...

Gary of the Pacific was written for long time downlowconcept collaborator and muse, Josh Thomson, as a vehicle for Thomson’s dead-pan comedy.     The film also stars American actress Megan Stevenson, from the Comedy Central show...

DIRECTORS NOTES The Tide Keeper is a dance and puppetry film that speaks of one man's fears for the environment and future of humanity. Blending reality and fantasy, I worked with the presence and environmental concerns of my non-performer father,...

The crew of the New Zealand low budget Zombie film Tonight They Come! are filming in a forest location beside a rural in town Central Otago. The troubled shoot goes from bad to worse when key cast and crew are stuck down by a mystery illness contracted...

Alex’s childhood best friend is coming for a visit, but he’s not exactly looking forward to the reunion. He has changed since the last time they met and, despite his girlfriend’s reassurance, Alex isn’t sure he’s ready to...

On a dark night, deep in the New Zealand Forest an Alien Woman is abandoned. She is not alone, her dying son is left with her. The Alien Mother sacrifces her life for her sons, giving him the last of her energy, and alone the Alien boy...

HOME is a gripping story of a close-knit family that’s torn apart, when a mother uncovers the truth about her two adult sons, and the heinous murder that they have committed.   Forced to choose between her love for them and her...

Ron (82) sits in the reception area of a rest home, peering outside and waiting patiently for his son to visit. When Daniel arrives, Ron rises to his feet with excited anticipation. the two of them start to catch up but don't seem to be...

Dominic returns home to Wanganui, a small New Zealand town, to see his family and catch up with childhood friends Kong and Jimmy. The three friends quickly fall back into old habits with a poorly timed mushroom trip and an overly excited parent Dominic...

When I returned from London I went and lived with my parents on our family farm in Hawkes Bay. Both my parents are recently semi-retired. I welcomed spending time with them. As an adult it is a true privilege to get to spend a few months just hanging...

"Rugby and farming are so heavily branded as symbols of national identity that you might wonder what relationship the images bear to real rugby-playing farmers in 2015. Confessed ‘rugby outsiders’, husband and wife filmmakers Chris Pryor...